Maxbialystock

Too many of us, but not me, underrate Sabathia. He is a real pro, an experienced starter who has adapted well to losing that blazing fastball because he still has great command of an assortment of breaking balls. Andy Pettite did the same thing for years but didn't have the variety of tools Sabathia has. Sabathia loves to keep the ball down. I think his size and reach may help him hide the ball better during his delivery. He hurts us because because we have a lot of guys who struggle against breaking stuff, which, by the way, can be a pain anyway. Hardest for our guys are balls breaking down (they all do) and near the bottom of the zone. Funny thing is, the righty-lefty thing, meaning righty hitters have an advantage over lefty pitchers because the slider or curve will break toward them and be easier to see and anticipate, doesn't seem to help much against Sabathia. Keeping it low helps him, but he also has a very good changeup, which will break low and away from a righty. And, like Sale, he's good at spotting a slider on the outside corner against a righty batter which tempts the batter to take a called strike. What I like about that first game matchup between ERod and Sabathia is that it will give ERod another chance to see how Sabathia gets thru the first two innings and to concentrate on doing his best--almost as though he is our ace of the day because, against us, Sabathia has been an ace. ERod has pretty good stuff, but vastly over-relies on his fastball in the early innings largely because--my opinion--his command usually isn't there in the early innings. He has a good changeup which can be great against righties, but you almost never see it (or a good one) in the first inning and probably not the 2d either. Sabathia has no such inhibitions. Plus there ain't no free lunch. Moving Sabathia to Thursday against those low-life, no good, rotten Red Sox is all well and good, but also invites Cleveland--with whom we are tied for the 2d best record in the AL and who right now is hot--to get a sweep today/tonight.

Bingo. You nailed my no doubt prejudice. It probably boils down to the locks, but is supported by misadventures in LF, not so bright baserunning, and salary. You properly give him credit he is due.

With apologies for no doubt looking too for forward, I checked our 4 starters in the big apple. ERod, Fister, Pom, and Sale. If ERod can just start off well, those are currently our four best in my opinion.

Tip of the hat to Slasher 9 for turning a 4 game losing streak into 2 wins and counting. Also to moonslav for insisting this team was better than those 4 losses and fundamentally sound enough to persevere in this pennant race.

We sure did, but on the other side we also hit the ball hard several times straight to Jays fielders. Plus nobody was helping Sale pitch that 7 inning gutsy gem--aided by a great job by Reed. The pitching success was definitely earned.

It's occurred to a lot of people and shifts in my opinion are hurting the game. Just one more technological advancement that tells the manager what is the statistically best place to put those infielders. If MLB works it right and spends the money, every manager can also get a little specialty computer to immediately tell him the best strategy at any given point in the game given the situation. The bench coach's job is to keep feeding the new game data into the computer. I mean, heck, let's take judgment out of the game because who needs it? It's slow and sometimes faulty. '' The fix on shifts is to mandate the number of infielders on each side of 2b--2 and 2.

Yanks and Guardians rained out. I win gets us back to 4 up on the Yankees and even with the Guardians. Porcello tomorrow night, then 4 at Yankee Stadium. Porcello finally needs to man up because another win tomorrow sets us up well for NYC. Kimbrel needed 22 pitches tonight. Can't see him going tomorrow night, probably not Reed either. Sure would be nice to some real offense tomorrow night.

So far a lovely game, especially the 8 inning shutout. The Jays catcher is so intimidated he's stopping throwing to 2b on SB attempts. 5 sb's by the Sox says a ton about that catcher. Big hits by HanRam and Beni. Great comeback start by Sale--exactly what he and the team needed.

Agree. And I apologize for the smart ass remark about Beni stealing 2b and Nunez going home. We can disagree without one of us being a jerk.

Really? You mean a runner on first should never try to steal 2b with a man on 3b who should in turn never attempt to go home on the throw to 2b? And FWIW, this catcher could easily have made a bad throw to 2b to make Nunez's theft easier.

What a weird 7th. Three K's wrapped around HanRam's very timely and needed dinger.

Sale is last man standing after 6 with 90 pitches, a good bet for 7. Nice, gutsy, well-executed start tonight so far. Our ace comes thru. But I hate scoring just 1 run against these guys.

Watch the game. It was a double steal. I say again, double steal. Toronto should have nailed Nunez but they blew the rundown badly. given our dearth of scoring opportunities and our weak hitting, it was a smart gamble.

Finally a little justice with that cheap run. Jays seem to me to be even more capable of boneheaded plays than some teams. Bautista badly misplayed that single/double to RF. The run down was absolutely the worst I can remember. Farrell had every right to argue interference by donaldson deliberatedly falling on Nunez, but it's still a tough call.

After 5 innings, Sale has thrown 80 pitches and Anderson 65. Sox have hit several balls hard right to someone but Toronto not so much. Both starters have 3 K's and no BB's.

In last 7 starts the Sox have scored 6, 3, 3, 2, 12, 4, and 6 runs. Throw out the 12 and the 2, and it's still 22 runs, 4.5 runs per game. Keep them and it's over 5 runs per game. Not great, but not that bad either. It was earlier in the season when he got terrible support.

Oh, that was sweet! He got Bautista looking at a fastball in the geometric center of the strike zone. Like a bullfighter standing in front of the bull and dropping his cape.

In Sale's defense, he is clearly determined not to repeat last time, so he is working carefully, trying to get those corners vs. challenging hitters. This takes more pitches, but it's probably right.

In fact, despite 1 hit off Sale and 3 off Anderson, I'd say Anderson is more masterful tonight. Sale's throwing more than normal breaking balls, especially changeups and sliders, but he really wants to throw hard stuff. Plus his slider and changeup don't seem to be as sharp as Anderson's.

Anderson is a classic junk ball pitcher feeding us a lot of sliders, changeups, and curves and just the occasional fastball. Young got one of those right where he wanted it and grounded out easily to 3b. Our team as a whole does not read breaking balls well, plus making solid with one adds to the problem. It's also slightly possible some the guys looked at Anderson's ERA and decided tonight would be easy. Maybe the hitting coach did too and maybe they simply weren't prepared properly. But what do I know?

Nunez took the outside line from the get go, then tried to go back inside and basically stopped for the easy tag. Bautista has a great arm, but this was a 2 man out, man on 2d situation that begged for him going all they way. I don't think he got the jump he should have, not do I think he took the right track going to home. The next batter, had Nunez stayed at 3b, would have been Bogaerts, who promptly struck out badly to lead of the 2d inning.

Don't forget Beni is also a hot bat.

Wild applause, a real eye opener. OPS is imperfect, but at least we know what's in it, and OBP and Slugging are a good start. 28 days is basically August, our best month, and neither Nunez nor Devers are in the top 5--they're 6th and 7th. I have given them credit for reviving the lineup, and that's probably still true, but maybe the greater truth is that it still boils down to the whole lineup. They revived the other players, and that's even better than doing it all themselves.

I'm fine with Davis in for Holt, but leading off? You pointed out on the other thread that Betts and Moreland now have the same OPS, and Betts spent the great majority of his at bats leading off this year. Could it be leading off is just plan hard to do so now Farrell is giving Nunez a break? I think Beni and Devers sticking at 3d and 6th against lefty should work. Devers has just 115 at bats this year, 27 against lefties, but his OPS against them is 1.113, almost 300 points higher than against righties. Beni is better against righties than lefties, but not but a whole lot. I would not have been as bold as you with Young and am fine with slotting him 8th. The big surprise is HanRam is still batting 7th, against a lefty. Overall just two lefty bats in this lineup, assuming Leon bats righty.

I'm just long-winded. That doesn't make me a better Sox fan. You have a great balance between statistical insights and appreciating the game for what it is, especially as played by the Sox. I taught gunnery and still remember parts of the tabulated firing tables, so I love numbers, and yours are the best I've seen because there is a brain and an appreciation of baseball behind them. The above is just one more great example. I can remember checking Red Sox box scores in the summer of 1949 when I was overseas and we only got the Stars and Stripes. I remember listening to Curt Gowdy call games in the summers of 1953-54. But I was really just a sometime fan from 1954 until pretty close to 2004. I was overseas and remember nothing of the 1967 season, for example. I discovered blog sites maybe 5 or so years ago, about 5 years after I starting getting Sox games on TV regularly (here in N. Virginia), which means that I'm truly a johnny come lately. You've been doing this a whole lot longer, as have a lot of other people on talksox. Back to your numbers above about OPS's. Wow. Vaz over Bogie and Moreland even with Betts. It's a new world. Maybe there is something in a distributed lineup that can bat you in different places and ways. We all love to hammer Moreland, so that tie is a shocker.